


Namesake

by MellowShark (TheAssbenderWhisperer)



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Erik is Crushing Harder than a 12-year Old Girl, Erik is a Sweetheart, Fluff, Gen, Kittens, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 13:36:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4878844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAssbenderWhisperer/pseuds/MellowShark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naming your pet after a favourite character or celebrity is normal, right?<br/>What about naming them after your crush of goodness knows how long because you've never been able to say anything?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Namesake

**Author's Note:**

> Based on [this adorable kitten](http://kittycatdaily.tumblr.com/post/62741871601) and a ficlet I wrote for it a few years ago.
> 
> Thank you to [Cheezybananaz](http://cheezybananaz.tumblr.com) for support! <3
> 
> Also, I've put this as both Gen and M/M because there's no dating or anything, just crushes? So I wasn't sure whether to have it as just Gen or just M/M :)

Raven burst through the door. “Erik? Have you finished fixing my,” said man held a hand up at her, “…guitar yet?” She drifted off noting Erik’s shushing motion. He was sitting and staring at the said guitar in an, unusually, non-predatory way. The blonde knelt down next to the man, raising an eyebrow in question at what he was doing. Erik’s head turned towards Raven, but still not looking away from guitar.

“Keep quiet.” He whispered as she nodded and relaxed, still perplexed, and stared at the guitar as well. “Just wait a moment.” He smiled a little at small scratching and padding noises coming from inside the main body of the instrument. Curious as to what was taking up all of her friend's focus, Raven frowned and opened her mouth to speak.

“Erik wha-?” Erik cut her off with a hand to her mouth as they both saw a brown and white kitten head pop up from the sound hole. It’s ears flicking to attention and it’s curious little head turning to look directly at Erik with a mew and then turn to look at the newcomer.

More white fur emerged from the hole, fluffing up from the edges. Two tiny paws flicked out slowly, finding just the right spot, before the kitten lifted itself from it’s nesting place, revealing their brown and white fur, the brown of which, Raven noted, was an odd mixture of many brown shades, rather than one or two. It reminded her of something but she wasn't sure quite what.

“Since when have you had a kitten?” Raven continued to raise an eyebrow at Erik.

“Since about three weeks ago, he was on the street outside,” he pointed towards a window matter of factly, “he was cold and is around about two months old, so I adopted him.” The tone of his voice left no hints that he would explain why he felt the need to adopt the animal rather than let a shelter have them, especially what with both Erik and Raven in college, she was wondering how he had the time to look after such a young animal.

Said animal peered over the edge of the instrument, looking towards where Raven was knelt, as if judging the distance, ears twitching at the movement coming from the two humans.

“He? Huh.” She smirked and flopped onto the floor, startling the kitten a bit before he continued on to pad his front paws on the neck of the guitar, jumping up and down in the process. “What have you called him?”

Erik was busy grinning at the adorable feline, it’s jumping around catching a few of the loose strings and resulting in the kitten's attention now focused on those strings as he began to bat them. Raven prodded the brunet’s shoulders, laughing to herself about how smitten he was with this kitten.

“Hey! What’s his name?” After having Raven wave her hand in his face, Erik perked up at the question this time, eyes downcast and an almost blush on his face as he spoke.

“Charles.”

Raven laughed a little loudly, luckily not startling the white and brown fluff-ball now curiously looking at the frets of the guitar, patting at the top, again, as if judging distance to see if he could jump over it. Once Raven's laughter died down, with her gasping for breath a little, she managed to get a few words out.

“Charles? You named him after your, gosh it must be what, at least six year crush? I mean I knew you were smitten with Charles but this is a bit much.” She smiled though, leaning on Erik’s arm to watch Charles play with the loose strings. “It’s funny though, I’d never have taken you for a cat lover Erik.”

“That’s because you only saw me with the dog you had when we were growing up Raven. Your dog wasn’t ridiculously furry like this kitten is and besides, you’ve just never seen me with a kitten.” Erik shrugged with the shoulder Raven currently wasn’t resting on and continued to watch. Since they had been young, living in the same neighbourhood, Raven had invited Erik over time and time again just to play with her and her dog, as she would get a bit nervous at how big it was, but knew how much Erik liked big dogs. The memories made Raven smile tenderly, but soon that smile turned sly as from the defensive tone she had picked up in Erik’s voice, she soon hatched a plan to get the human Charles and the kitten Charles to meet.

Currently, kitten Charles was pawing at one of the loose strings again, looking it up and down before pouncing next to it and flicking his tiny ears.

“He’s been like this since you brought me it last week, I do apologise.” Raven knew from the smirk on her best friend’s face that that was not all that true. “He’s grown attached to it and clearly he was enjoying a new toy.” Raven tilted her head up to look at Erik, his normal smirk morphed into a soft smile that she’d only every seen briefly when he’d seen his long time crush from a distance. His normally harsh eyes sparkling with a joy not usually there. Charles lifted his paws onto the neck of the guitar, lifting himself up and jumping onto it and promptly tumbling off.

Erik laughed, excused himself and leant forward to grab the kitten, cradling him in his hands. Charles pawed at Erik’s face, happy high pitched purrs coming from his chest. Erik caught one of Charles’ paws in his fingers, squeezing it slightly, to which the kitten responded with delighted squeaking.

“You two are going to have a long and loving relationship. I can see it now!” Raven sat up and made the camera framing hand position. “Now I’m just picturing the moment that human Charles finds out you named your cat after him in an attempt to show him you looooove him.” She smirked as Erik tried to glare at her, but Charles moved up to nap in the crook of Erik’s elbow and his glare melted away. At the reminder of fixing her guitar, Erik carefully stood up and went over to the kitchen counter, picking up a spare key and passing it to her.

“I should have it sorted in a couple of weeks. Whilst I’d love to fix it up and clean it all soon, exams are coming up so I might be a bit slow for once. But feel free to drop by and see progress if you want.” He passed the key over to the blonde who took it with a big grin, making Erik frown a little before raising an eyebrow, having no clue what she had planned.

________________________________

In the week since Erik adopted the kitten, he began to realise how apt the name Charles was for him. Not only did the brown parts of his fur match human Charles’ hair so well, but he also had a habit of softening Erik’s heart as much as his namesake. Every now and then Erik would walk around his apartment and suddenly feel some light patting on his feet, as the kitten decided that they were his second favourite toy, after Raven’s guitar. There was a slight chance Erik had accidentally lightly hit the kitten Charles a few time and every single time had instantly crouched down and gathered the fluff ball into his arms to apologise. 

Currently, said kitten was curled up on his chest as Erik lay sprawled out on the sofa, yawning after his long day of studying for upcoming college exams. Tiny little purrs could be heard, coming from the warm chest of the kitten, making Erik slowly feel even sleepier. A few minutes later, the door to his apartment slowly opened; but with his focus on the soft purring, Erik was oblivious to the presence of two people coming into his home. In his exhausted state, Erik’s fingers found their way into kitten Charles’ fur, gently carding through it, and with his lack of knowledge of the two people nearby, he began talking to the little life on his chest.

“It’s funny. I think I’ve become as attached to you as I have your namesake. But at least I can actually tell you how much I adore you…” A quiet mewing is the response he gets and a soft chuckle leaves him as he whispered out the kitten’s name. The tenderness in his voice startled himself and with a gruff shake of the head, Erik moved his hand away to rub at his face, grumbling something before his body suddenly froze at the sound of muffled laughter. His entire body tensed and his hand came up to protect the kitten as Erik jumped up off of the sofa and flicked the dimmer switch so more light could appear.. 

“Raven-?” Further words are cut off as Raven bent over slightly, hand to her mouth as she cackled and gasped for breath from her laughter. The dawning realisation that she had heard what he was saying bares down on Erik, but when he realised she wasn’t alone, the embarrassment of talking like that to a kitten hit him hard and Erik put the kitten down on the ground, allowing him to scamper off somewhere. 

When Erik finally lookd at Raven’s companion, their brown hair matched his kitten’s and their eyes a similar shade of blue. A storm brewed in Erik’s eyes as he glared at Raven, questioning why she came here so late and why she brought someone with her. Once Raven has recovered from her laughter, she stood up straight again and put a hand on her hip, showing off her key with the other hand.

“I wanted to see how my guitar was doing and Charles happened to be with me. He’s part of the music society and we’d just finished a meeting. He said he wanted to see the guitar I'd been getting fixed.” 

Of course. Erik had forgotten Raven’s message earlier about popping over, but she’s not said anything about bringing Charles here too! Human Charles. Charles who now knew Erik was creepily in love with him so much so he’d name a pet after him. 

With clenched fists, Erik went to storm off, to grab Raven’s guitar from his workspace, he stops and notices a little ear twitching in the soundhole. In an instant, his body relaxed as he heard that quiet mewing again and watched kitten Charles poke his head out of the guitar, resting his chin on the edge and starting up at Erik. After a few moments of staring at one another, kitten Charles looked to the side, to which Erik’s eyes followed and he saw human Charles crouched next to him. Human Charles smiled softly as he reached out and stroked the kitten with the back of his finger, earning loud purrs in response, before turning his head to Erik.

“I’m honestly glad you think I’m as cute as this little guy. I never imagined you’d think of me that way, Erik.” There was a brief moment where they both looked down at kitten Charles, who was now patting and grabbing for human Charles’ finger, to play with it. “I should be creeped out by the fact you named your pet after me, but for some reason I find it endearing. As, if I’m honest, if I had a pet I probably would have done the same.” With a sly grin, Charles met Erik’s eyes and they started chuckling.

Meanwhile, Raven began tapping her foot, as even though she had had a plan in her head to get the two Charles’ to meet. She did still want to see her guitar.


End file.
